Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!ctrsol!cica!iuvax!mailrus!ames!amdahl!amdcad!military
From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: The death of mobile war
Message-ID: <26827@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 18 Aug 89 04:24:56 GMT
References: <26786@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Organization: New York State Institute for Sebastian Cabot Studies
Lines: 44
Approved: military@amdcad.amd.com



From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

In article <26786@amdcad.AMD.COM>, Carl Rigney writes: 
[No I didn't - there was a glitch that just made it look that way.
Everyone PLEASE include signatures! -- CDR]

*I agree, this however, may not make for mobile war.  Look at the American
*Civil War, and WWI.  The advance of technological killing power made
*everyone dig in.  Thus it effectively killed mobility.  

i'd argue that in the civil war, the main thing that killed
mobility was failure of many of the commanders to comprehend
the changes that new weaponry wrought on the battlefield (not
to mention that McClellan was fairly worthless as a field
commander.)

certainly, you cannot argue that Grant's Vicksburg Campaign was
static, that Lee's incursions into the north were static, or that
Sherman's march was static.  if you are talking about the
Virgina theater, i'd argue that it is in many ways irrelevant to
the outcome of the war, and that Grant fell into static battles
largely because the army that McClellan trained, while very
disciplined, was also very slow to react; slower than the western
armies that Grant had commanded early in the war.

you need to keep in mind that there were really two wars, the war
in Virginia, and the war in the west, and that they were of very
different characters.

(i'm not prepared to argue about WWI, as my background there
is fairly limited.)

[ I think in WW I as well, the static warfare was the result of tactical
  thought among the commanders not catching up with the new technology.
  --CDR ]

richard
-- 
richard welty    518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
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